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The Last Silovik?

Igor Sechin, the head of the state-owned oil giant Rosneft and Russian President Vladimir Putin's long-time "number two," is now embroiled in a very public legal squabble. Putin seems to be using the courtroom, yet again, as a platform for clarifying the positions of the Kremlin elite in advance of the 2018 presidential election.

MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin’s regime is as sphinxlike as any that has ever ruled Russia, and now there is a new mystery afoot. Is Igor Sechin – perhaps the most powerful of the St. Petersburg siloviki who helped establish Putin’s regime 18 years ago – about to fall?

The siloviki, the grey men who emerged from the security and military apparatus, have ruled the roost in Russia for the last generation. Sechin had a more substantial KGB career than Putin himself, and has held many of the key posts in his patron’s administration. Since 2012, he has been CEO of the state-owned oil giant Rosneft, Russia’s third-largest company (after Gazprom and Lukoil), whose board chairman since September is former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

Under Sechin’s leadership, Rosneft has become a state within a state, with a quarter-million employees, $65 billion in revenue, and 50 subsidiaries at home and abroad – as many as Gazprom. And Rosneft, even more than Gazprom, has pioneered the modus operandi of the Putin system since 2004, when it took over the assets of Yukos, following the imprisonment of the company’s head, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a Putin opponent, on fraud and embezzlement charges.

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Nina L. Khrushcheva makes an interesting revelation that sheds a light on Putin's "number two" man, Igor Sechin, hinting that the chief executive of Rosneft, the state oil company may be falling from grace with the Russian president. Sechin is said to upset many oligarchs, when he acquired so much power a few years ago. His power flows from his closeness to Putin. Not only are they friends since their KGB era, they also embrace strong state control.Known in Russia as Darth Vader and "the scariest man on Earth". Sechin has been summoned to testify against Alexei Ulyukaev in court, which would have been unheard of, given his stature as "the most powerful of the St. Petersburg siloviki who helped establish Putin’s regime 18 years ago." Sechin is widely regarded as the head of the Kremlin's siloviki clan, made up of former KGB spies around Putin and nationalist hardliners with a military background. The "siloviki" - men of power - run Russia. While ordinary Russians have to pinch their pennies, life has been good for the elites. Bribery is rampant in Russia. For the moment Sechin is "involved in a very public – and symbolically significant – courtroom fight." Ulyukaev, a former minister of economic development, has been charged with taking a $2 million bribe from Sechin to endorse Rosneft's takeover of a regional oil company, Bashneft. The author says, the "decision to pursue a bribery case against a powerful player is never just about the rule of law. In this case, the real motivation behind Sechin’s decision to go after Ulyukaev is uncertain." Perhaps he felt that the minister needed reminding of his place in the rigid Kremlin hierarchy. He had, "after a previous conversation on the topic, reported Ulyukaev to the FSB," the KGB's successor organisation. There are speculations about Sechin’s role in "entrapping Ulyukaev." Perhaps Putin, who has already "ousted a number of the leading siloviki who brought him to power, had decided to take Sechin down a peg or two," using the "courtroom as a platform" to defeat his opponents, like Mikhail Khodorkovsky. "This is particularly important in the run-up to the 2018 presidential election." Putin himself has not yet stated his intentions . But it is rumored that he is seeking a " trusted flunky to take over his post, at least temporarily." What if - however unthinkable the idea is - he were to decide not to run?It's most likely that Putin runs again. Imagine a Russia without Putin and "given his penchant for total control." There is no doubt that he wants to sack Dmitri Medvedev and may be seeking a "subservient" prime minister. Most of all he needs a team to revamp Russia's economy, like diversifying it, weaning it off the reliance on oil revenues. But without international investment and the lifting of sanctions, growth may just be a distant dream. The author say, "by going after one of Putin’s ministers, Sechin appeared to be flexing his muscles, perhaps believing that this would prove his readiness as a prime-time political player." Apparently the FSB had been conducting the sting operation against Ulyukaev after months of electronic surveillance, including phone-tapping. While running the entire operation, the FSB informed Putin about all the developments.This "episode has merely shown, yet again, that there is no real “number two” in Russia; there is only Putin, controlling the FSB, the courts, and the commanding heights of the economy. Whether Putin decides to remain president or temporarily to fill the post with a puppet, as he did in 2008 with Medvedev, his message could not be clearer: I, and only I, am in charge." The political climate in Russia has roughened, despite Putin's iron fist. Critics say he may not be popular, but he is for the most part a known quantity. He is an autocrat, an aggressor and worse, but no one seems to admit that a "Russia without Putin could be a lot less predictable and more dangerous than a Russia with Putin at the helm. But this is no excuse to accept his autocratic rule and expansionist policies.